


Teddy

by thoughtsappear



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Pre-Mass Effect 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-24
Updated: 2014-10-24
Packaged: 2018-02-22 09:14:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2502458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoughtsappear/pseuds/thoughtsappear
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the eve of her imprisonment, Shepard and Garrus pack up her cabin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Teddy

Normally, Garrus liked going to Shepard’s cabin, but today he had a more serious, somber purpose. As they entered, they took inventory of the Commander’s belongings, her datapads strewn around the desk, a few books, her finished models on display. She didn’t have much, but what she did have she wanted to keep. She knew she needed to pack it up, but she and Garrus stalled as they watched her fish swim, the blue light reflecting off their faces.

Neither of them wanted to do it.

Tomorrow she was supposed to surrender the ship. Hackett had suggested she gather her things from the Captain’s cabin, and Shepard had grimaced. Packing up her cabin made things real, that she was being forced to leave, and that she was going to be punished for trying to make the galaxy safer.

Shepard sighed, and started throwing her belongings into a large dufflebag. Garrus carefully packed her breakable models in a sturdy box. He watched her contemplate her belongings, deciding what to pack and what to get rid of.

Garrus had known Shepard for several years and he thought he had the Commander pretty much figured out. He thought he knew everything about her, her favorite movies, favorite foods and of course her favorite shops on the Citadel. He knew other things, the things you learn from sharing space with someone. Things that bothered him, like the way she did her laundry in one load, not separating colors or fabrics. She had to sleep on her right side because she’d dislocated her left shoulder and had never set properly. She liked to rub her feet on him when she was cold, and her feet were always freezing. It was always a rude awakening to have two ice cold human feet rubbing your legs in the middle of the night.

He was shocked to see Shepard pulling something small and furry from under her bed.

It was a small stuffed earth animal. A quick extranet search told him it was a bear. The bear in the photograph was ferocious and large. He found it odd that humans would make such a violent animal into a toy. The stuffed animal even had a little plastic smile on its furry face.

Shepard saw his reaction to it, and quickly tried to hide it away.

“Why do you have that?”

She looked embarrassed but let him look at it again. The bear was old, its synthetic fur had rubbed off in places and its plastic eyes were scratched.

“He’s been with me for a long time, I’m just in the habit of keeping him with me. It’s silly, I know.”

“Cute.”

“You’re making fun of me.” She tried to snatch the bear away but Garrus grabbed him back.

“I wouldn’t dare. I just think it’s cute that the first human spectre, the most badass woman in the galaxy has a…what’s it called…teddy bear.”

“Be nice to Winston. He’s been in my bed a lot longer than you have.”

“You’ve named it?” Garrus kept inspecting the bear, seeing things like old stains, burn marks and places where the stuffing was threatening to fall out.

“He was named after the person who gave him to me. One of my foster brothers.” Shepard snatched her bear back indignantly. She gave him a little squeeze. “He died years ago.”

Garrus hung his head in shame. “Well now I feel like an ass.”

“You didn’t know,” she reassured him. “I just like having him around. He reminds me of where I’ve been, better times.”

She gave the bear a little once over, rubbing his fur down in the right direction and slipped it into her luggage. The room was almost completely packed. They’d put her models in storage, and she’d surrender the rest of her belongings upon her arrest. She knew Anderson would make sure she got everything back.

“Do turians have stuffed animals?” she asked.

“No, I never did,” Garrus straightened up, glad the mood had shifted.

“What kind of toys did you play with?”

“Tanks, sniper rifles, army men, stuff like that.”

Shepard laughed. “It figures.”

“How come you hide your little furry friend under the bed?”

“I didn’t want you to get jealous, obviously.” She crossed the room and zipped up her garment bag. “Come on, it’s embarrassing.”

“We did have comfort objects.” Garrus decided to try to make her feel better. “Mine was a small blanket my mother made. I almost took it with me to basic training.”

“Really, big bad sniper had a blanky?” Shepard smiled at the image, baby Garrus with a blanket in hand.

He made a grumpy noise under his breath, trying to sound bothered, but she could tell he was amused as she was.

“I won’t tell if you don’t,” she said, offering him her hand. They shook on it, then continued holding hands as Shepard took a final inventory of the room. She committed the cabin to memory, hoping that just maybe this wouldn’t be her final time seeing it.

“Let’s go,” she said. They walked hand in hand, smiling at each other, enjoying the little secret they had exchanged. It was something they could cling to when the situation around them was falling apart.

==

When Shepard had been brought back onto the Normandy unexpectedly, she had left all of her belongings behind in Vancouver. It didn’t bother her, she could buy new models to put together, her clothes and books were easily replaceable. She let herself wish for Winston once, and then went back to more important matters.

Turns out, Garrus had a plan all along. A few days after he returned to the Normandy he left a present in Shepard’s bed. Shepard was exhausted, she had already showered and was sliding into bed when she noticed she had a furry bed-mate. 

She stomped down to the main battery, even though it was after midnight and she had already taken off her clothes. She was wearing pajama pants with a hoodie on top, padding through the ship in fuzzy slippers.

“How?” she said, thrusting the bear at him.

Garrus shrugged. “Looks like your old friend caught up to you.”

“I know you did this,” she said. “No one else even knows about him.”

Garrus didn’t say anything, instead he turned his attention to the console. He hummed a tune under his breath, but he was loving Shepard’s reaction. He could tell despite her shock, that underneath she was deliciously happy.

“Fine, don’t tell me how you pulled this off,” Shepard sighed and tucked her bear under her arm. “I’ll have more fun figuring it out myself.”

She shuffled off, looking less like the commander of a military warship and more like a pre-teen girl going to a sleepover. He especially liked her pink slippers.

“Thank you,” she said, pausing before exiting the room. “Maybe you could come visit us later?”

Garrus smiled at that one, and set the calibration to auto-run overnight. This time a few percentiles of accuracy could be sacrificed for the greater good. He would be an idiot not take to take advantage of Shepard’s good mood and how impressed she was.

Shepard never did figure out how Garrus got her teddy bear back on the Normandy. But she did figure out, without a doubt, that he was the one.


End file.
